Housing News
National Association of Realtors says home prices haven’t declined
Conflicting information
At the National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual conference today in Anaheim, Dr. Lawrence Yun said during his residential forum presentation, “Prices have not declined in the past two years,” as reported by the NAR Research team via Twitter, which we find to be curious.
We agree with Yun’s other points that housing is currently affordable, new home inventory levels are at historic lows, existing home inventories are high, lending is still tight for builders and consumers, consumer confidence remains low, and that cash purchase account for one in three purchases, but not that prices have not declined.
Perhaps Yun is using Case-Shiller data that only looks at a sampling of the largest metro areas, but according to NAR’s own report released just two days ago, the national median existing single-family home price dropped 4.7 percent over the year to $169,500 in the third quarter.
Zillow’s Chief Economist Dr. Stan Humphries said last month home values have dropped and that depreciation would continue.
All signs point to home values that are down and while there were some gains in the past two years, there were major losses, with home prices currently down over the year according to Dr. Yun himself just two days ago, presenting a substantial conflict of information.
Ironically, it was later tweeted by an attendee that Dr. Yun said during the same speech, “There are lies, damn lies and there are statistics” (we have not independently verified). The NAR Research team has not yet responded to our request for comment.
UPDATE: the NAR Research team privately responded, clarifying their tweet: “Not declined meaningfully nationally – should have said stabilized, my mistake” and publicly tweeted, “Thanks for the catch on that, @AgentGenius.”
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
Click here to continue reading this story…
Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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gigharborinfo
November 11, 2011 at 2:01 pm
I for one am glad to know my house hasn't declined in value. I was certain that the most recent appraisal that I got to try and re-fi was flawed, and now I have verification that it was.